A New Addition to the Family

If you go back to the post I made about our previous car, a 2006 Kia Sportage, I wrote:

We’d been discussing a 2010 Subaru Forester for awhile, largely because they hold their value substantially longer than other vehicles, they’re reliable, and they have all-wheel drive standard.  However, considering the value of our trade-in (which wasn’t much…), it just wasn’t going to be feasible anytime soon…

“Anytime soon” was accurate.  Since getting that car, Brooke in particular hasn’t been all that happy with it.  It had a few issues, for sure, and the interior didn’t really instill you with the feeling that it was a “nice” vehicle.  Still, it worked.  It drove.  It rode pretty well for long distances.  In retrospect, however, we put at least $3000 in maintenance and repairs into a car that we were still making payments on, so we never really felt secure in its reliability.

That, and it didn’t have a moonroof.  My 1993 Nissan Altima that I drove in college had a moonroof.  And I loved it.  And I missed it.

A few weeks ago, we started looking into whether it was getting time to upgrade.  Not necessarily whether it would happen now, but more questioning of when it could happen.  After making a few calls, going on a test drive, and looking into things, we ended up taking the plunge: we’re the proud owners of a 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i.  And I couldn’t be happier. 🙂

It’s fun to drive, it’s got all-wheel drive, it has Bluetooth integration, it has a rear-backup camera, it has heated seats (and side mirrors!!), it has a timing chain, it has CVT, it actually moves when you press the accelerator…and most of all…it has a spectacular moonroof.  It’s pretty tech-laden, so I’m having to read through the instruction manual on this one to get everything figured out.  It’s a nice problem to have, at least for someone like me.  Meg likes the moonroof too, but probably likes the cup holder next to her seat better.

And the plan is, she’ll get to drive it some day.  When we bought Brooke’s 2006 Scion xA new, the plan was (and is) to “drive it into the ground,” or at least as close as we can.  We’ve got about 97,000 mi on it now and had almost zero issues with it.  The one issue we did have was with the blower motor resistor, and I was able to fix that myself.  We’ll probably end up replacing it eventually, but likely not until we’re done making payments on the Subaru.  And the Subaru, we’ll keep as long as we can.  Now, for the first time, we’ve got two cars we bought off the lot, getting exactly what we wanted with the intent of keeping them for a long time.

Regardless, we’re excited!  It’s fun to drive and now we want to go on a long trip to Colorado or Yellowstone.  🙂